Mission

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"Float like a bird and sting with a feather."

Kala whispered the words in a rhythm as her fingertips brushed the aircraft controls. She had named her fighter Mourning Dove, a tribute to the sea of bodies left in its wake. With laser light flashes she cut through every rival she had met in the sky, sending their pilots plunging to the depths of a cold they could never emerge from.

She smiled. The lines were broken, and the time for those games had passed. Now, she was approaching their nest.

Soft and steady, she glided through the clouds that dimmed the lights of the cities she crossed. Her screen flashed with two bright pink squares coming toward her from the northeast.

Butterflies. The enemy’s lightweight drones were good for scouting, but not much else. She wouldn’t change course for something so trivial. Let them follow.

A few more joined the trail as Kala began her descent. She leaned forward in her seat and pulled the Dove’s wings in tight to cut through the air resistance, flipping the switch that would let her targeting system lock on to the enemy’s core.

She didn’t flinch when a butterfly flew up in front of her face and spread its wings wide. Her speed was unstoppable, it would be shattered if it stayed in her path.

The drone broke into pieces on impact. Its wings remained, fixing themselves firmly to the sides of the Mourning Dove.

Kala’s headphones filled with static as her radar flashed on and off, indecisive for only seconds before it stayed off for good. She ripped the noise from her ears and her chest grew tight.

“Not possible.”

She reached beneath her seat and twisted her emergency valve, the one that would make sure she would still have oxygen if the fighter’s electronic system failed. Steadying her breath, she looked straight ahead.

Her windshield was clear, but she was flying blind. Somewhere beneath her, through the green-tinted windows of the enemy fortress, was the power core that she needed to destroy. The Dove’s seeking system was programmed to sense it, but that system had been taken offline by something she’d never been trained to guard against.

Everything below was a foreign maze to the naked eye.

She tilted the Dove to the right, slicing through layers of air as she curved her way downward. Her head pounded as she tried to focus on seeing what could not possibly be seen.

Power.

Her target was the core, the source of it all. She had to find the enemy’s power.

Kala flew in closer. The throbbing in her head grew as meter by meter, she closed the gap. Only one thing could do that to her, and she closed her eyes and let her instincts take over.

Putrid green spiderwebs drew themselves on the inside of her mind as the enemy’s core pulled her in. It was calling her now, taunting her, daring her to crash. Exposing itself.

Her fingers twitched as she placed them on the button that would fire the only missile she carried. Releasing her breath, she prayed.

“Guide me.”

Kala fired her weapon.

A glorious explosion shattered the silent night, and as she opened her eyes the butterflies dropped from the sky. Streetlights on the ground were stripped of their power, and the enemy’s world turned black.

Far in the distance, a faint azure glow made its way across the horizon.

A river to the east caught reflections of its light, and Kala steered herself toward it to bring the Dove safely down.

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This is definitely not a #freewrite, since it took longer than five minutes and had quite a bit of editing, but it was inspired by the 5 Minute Freewrite Prompt - Airplane posted by the lovely @mariannewest!

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